Home for the Holidays...Racing

The guys were going to go "racing"...but when my dad started calling us girls, "hazards"...we couldn't just allow that to happen! (I'm sure he did it on purpose!) Sarah of course couldn't go being pregnant, but the rest of us decided to go and show our stuff!

We first decided that the winner of the girls race could then race against the guys...which we all thought would be a cinch, BTW!

Here's us in our "cute" get up! Ha! We first try to look tough...then decide that we don't really look that tough...so we'll look sweet instead:)

Helmets are so clastrophic! Ugh! Don't we look hotttt?! Ha!

As soon as the race starts, my "high performance kart" dies...classic! So the guy starts it up, but it starts to jam by itself and being the considerate girl I am...I stop so the guy doesn't think I'm being a jerk! Well the kart dies again, and then I get told you can't ever take your foot off the gas or it will die again:( Rudy!!! They did this whole speech about how you can't press the gas and brake at the same time...so I decided I just wouldn't use the brake and Shavonne apparently decided to use the statement as a suggestion and ignore it all together! I think she got called into the "Sin Bin" first...which is like a time out for the drivers so they can tell you what you did wrong. Then I get pulled in and the guy is like super mad at me, telling me if I hit the side one more time I'll get ejected:( I decided it wasn't very fun anymore...because it's like impossible to get around turns without people bumping into you! (Later I find out that I evidently ignored the first "flag" into the "sin bin" so the guy was EXTRA happy to see me when I came around again:) Ooops! Anyhoo, I was 2nd on the board and Shavonne was 1st before we got called in...then I dropped to second to last because I afraid to touch anything. Sky played it smart! She kept it nice and slow the entire time and somehow Adrienne (even with a million spin outs) pulled off being the fastest! Oh well...I say "Pass" from now on! Shavonne and I are just going to say, we were SOOO good, they didn't want to be shown up...so they put us on time out:P

The guys had fun, Phil still beat my time by like 2 seconds...maybe we'll have a rematch some day:) Tyler and my dad practice like all the time...so they of course had the fastest time...whoo hoo!

The other kids had fun "pretending to race"!

Steele, Sarah's son, is obsessed with "Cars" and Lightning McQueen right now, so it was super cute to see his reaction. Shavonne has a picture of him sitting in one of the cars! Super Cute!

Home for the Holidays...Games

This is Sarah's oldest son, Cooper (5)and my little Madison (3)...doesn't she look thrilled to be posing for a picture!?

Tyler getting some air on the left during their first "jumpshot"...
Every year around Christmas, Turlock Stake has an annual basketball tournament. It's usually over a couple of nights, but this year it took place all on a Saturday:) Elena was in Patterson visiting her family too, so she came along to enjoy some of the "classicness" we had going on! "Our guys" have all gained a few pounds since their youth, but they still had it on the court! It was Tyler, Blake, Justin (Sarah's husband), Phil, Greg (Shavonne's husband), and my dad:)They won their first 2 games, but lost on the third:( I think they were pretty proud of their performance and I think they all vowed to be atleast 20 pounds lighter for the next tournament! I miss my "Nena" so it was super fun to hang out with her again:) We've been great friends since 7th grade...ugh that makes me feel OLD!

Later, we went home and played some Nertz! It's a classic card game that is tradition at the Pittson household! I think Greg won...but we ALL had a blast:)

Greg, Dad, and Tyler
Phil, Elena, Greg, Dad, and Tyler

Adrienne (Tyler's Wife), Shavonne, Me, and Sky
The whole table...my brother Blake is at the top:)

Sarah, Justin, and my mom are NOT game people...so we eventually joined them to watch Dumb and Dumber to finish off the night:) It reminds me of a "New Year's Eve" night when I was little. It was so much fun!

Home for the Holidays...Christmas Morning!

Since we weren't able to be home and the kids already opened all of their gifts from us, they only had their stockings, gifts from Santa and gifts from Nana and Papa to open. We hoped they wouldn't be too sad compared to everyone else's pile of gifts:)

We had Blake being the "Bouncer" and making sure all the kids stayed put until ALL the parents were down and ready for them!

They were so cute all coming down!


Madison and Seattle had fun opening their gifts...but quickly jammed to check out everyone else's gifts! Brooklyn and Boston I think were pretty stoked. Santa brought Brooklyn a Zune and Boston the Lego Star Wars saga complete with some "light sabers"...they both ran to go play with their own toys. I wish I had a picture of how excited Boston AND Cooper (Sarah's oldest) were about their Wii gifts! SO cute:)

Of course Berlin loved her gift from Nana...but again was really loving the wrapping paper! Seattle was EXTRA excited about her stocking...she just kept repeating, "Nandy mommy, Nandy"

She would even find other people's "Nandy" and persuade them to share with her:)


Drake loved Seattle's present...btw, while his presents were probably being used by every other child under the age of 3! Poor guy!

All in all, I think it was a pretty great christmas...especially with 12 kids opening gifts all at THE SAME TIME!

Home for the Holidays...Part 2

Christmas Eve Slideshow...if you want to change the scrolling speed, click on the + and - signs on the bottome left hand corner of the "show":)
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It's been a while since we've been home at my mom's house for Christmas Eve. It's so crazy how big our family has grown! My memories as a child were always of my mom decorating the tables with her Christmas China, and silverware while making home made rolls, and ALL the fixings for her Creamy Potato soup! Yummmm! As we've all gotten older, it used to be just my kids we had to keep track of while decorating the tables, but now...there were 12 kids there under the age of 10! Soooo, since we were NOT sacrificing quality this year either, it was the guys jobs to keep the kids entertained, while we helped get things set in the kitchen:)

It was so much fun to be home again with EVERYONE! That's pretty rare. Usually at least 1 of us isn't there and there is almost always a husband missing! This year, ALL of us came home for Christmas!! Believe it or not we all make up a mere 24people...in April it will be 25! (Sarah's preggers with baby boy #3, Reed)

On Christmas Eve, my Aunts and Uncles on my mothers side also come over for dinner and we let the kids open their presents after dinner. We played BINGO this year, which was a first! It was a blast, and my mom even had sweet prizes for the winners! We all were pretty into it...I was using 3 cards and it still took me 5 games to win! Ha Ha!

Just like every other year, there are always pranks being pulled...this year it was with this Martinelli's bottle and with Tyler! I seriously can't even write about it without chuckling to my self! Shavonne grabs Tyler's Martinelli's bottle while he leaves the table for a sec. She then proceeds to pour a hand full of SALT into it! Ha Ha! Well, we didn't know that Tyler had a headache and went in search of some Tylenol, so when he comes back, he takes a drink straight out of the bottle to wash his pill down! Ugh! We are in the other room and Shavonne is watching his reaction and trying to relay it to all of us! Then because it tastes NASTY, he then pours some into a cup and tries it AGAIN! (We later find out it was because he thought there was something wrong with the Tylenol!) Talk about disgusting!!! Anyhoo, then after he leaves Shavonne writes his name on that bottle, so he will continue to drink from that one! What we didn't know is my Aunt Joanie dumped out the salty bottle, washed it out, then refilled it with good Martinelli's. So you can imagine our surprise when Tyler comes out of the kitchen "swigging" this stuff straight from the bottle! So Tyler still never knew what was going on, until we ALL were laughing so incredibly hard...no one could miss that "something" was going on! Later, everyone started filling in the blanks! Oh...I love the fact that we still all act like we're 10 sometimes! I seriously haven't laughed that hard...EVER!

Home for the Holidays...Part 1

We drove down to Victorville, CA and joined Mom and Dad Wyatt along with Sara and Chad at Grandma and Grandpa Wyatt's house to celebrate Grandpa Wyatt's birthday. Several of Phil's Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins were there too to join in on the celebration!

Grandma Wyatt wasn't feeling very well, so she was unable to come downstairs and visit, but several loved ones did get to go up and see her, which was a great thing!

The kids enjoyed playing with their extended cousins and the little break in traveling, before we continued up to northern California to visit my family.

I enjoyed looking at old pictures, joking around with Sara and Chad, and of course listening to the VERY talented Wyatt family sing and play guitar! Wow!) I'm glad we made the trip this year, especially because Grandma Wyatt ended up passing away, just a few days later. She was very loved and will be missed by many:)

Our Christmas, before Christmas!

Since we are going to California this year for Christmas, we quickly figured out that there was NO way were going to A. want to transport the gifts there and B. lug them back! So we decided that we would let the kids open all their gifts from us on Tuesday and then they would just have "Santa's" gifts to open at Nana's. We gave the kids the option of staying home and opening them all on Christmas...but of course they chose the soonest day possible to rip into the gifts, without a thought!

Phil's parents were driving down to Orange County to celebrate his grandfather's birthday on the 23rd, and since we were also going that way, it worked out PERFECTLY that they could come and hang out with us for a few days and then we could drive down together to Southern California and spend a few hours with the Wyatt family, before driving up north to visit the Pittson family!

The kids were SOOOOO excited that Gramma and Papa wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner...which, as you all know, is a BUFFET! Yay! For some reason kids think that buffets are the GREATEST! Phil and I enjoy a good buffet every few years or so...so for the kids...this was like the greatest night ever! We told them that after dinner, we would come home and let them open gifts...which was pure HEAVEN for them:)
If only life were that simple...seriously!

So here are a few pics from dinner...do I need to mention there was "frozen yogurt"...which to a kid, is the SAME thing as Ice Cream!!! Ha Ha! You can see it plastered all over the girls faces...

On our way home, I was sooo excited to see that our street has seriously come a long way in the "light" department! We have like 6 houses in a ROW that are all lit up! I thought it was so pretty, that I had to take a picture:) I'm so proud! Maybe next year, we'll even have MORE neighbors move in and decorate too!

After we got home...the present "storm" began! We had ribbons and wrapping paper being thrown and flung everywhere! Seriously...all those hours of wrapping gone in like 60 seconds! It's crazy! Madison was asleep at first...so here she is on the couch.

Berlin, was completely content sucking on her own gift wrap...which Seattle actually thought must taste good after watching Berlin do it, so she herself took a little lick and made a totally grossed out face! Ha Ha! That was pretty funny:)
Don't worry, we unwrapped them for her and let her actually suck on something safe:)Madison finally woke up and joined the "pawrty"...

While Seattle enjoyed wearing her sweet boots on the wrong feet, unwrapping her gifts, and playing with her "Little People"!

Brooklyn, Boston, and Paris all made out with sweet stuff and of course they all got to open up Gramma Debbie's and Papa's gifts too, which made for an EVEN "funner" night!

I'm kind of sad that it's over, but I'm looking forward to a fun trip to California to see our family!